*In English

5-7 October 2007, at the University of Kent

This is an interdisciplinary conference to share and discuss new insights into divination arising from recent work – especially in religious studies, anthropology and history – which accords central importance to the practical and theoretical perspectives of the diviners themselves (who may also be theorists). It will also explore related issues such as ‘divinatory intelligence’ and divinatory truth, ontology, and reflexivity.

http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/Div_conf/

Ljubljana, Slovenia, 27—29 September 2007

This conference will provide a forum for scholarly discussion of conflicts in contemporary time-from generational conflicts, arising from the ageing of population in the most developed countries, conflicts between the rural and urban, of growing conflicts based on cultural, ethnic, religious and national grounds, which are being triggered by the fear of globalisation and loss of traditional group identities, conflicts between human biology and society, which arise from the technological development that changes the patterns of everyday life and provoke the change in human physical development, paralyses human physical activity and causes the so called civilization illnesses, such as hart-diseases and cancer, to conflicts between science and society, characterised by the rapid growth of scientific knowledge and by the diminishing value of science in contemporary society, where the power of scientific argumentations is being substituted by often ignorant political decisions.

Late and onsite registration fee (after June 30, 2007): €100

Institute for Women’s Studies, Lancaster University 27-29 September 2007

This conference will explore the ways in which the idea of ‘melancholic states’ speaks to the complexity of the present. Melancholic States – with acclaimed speakers, artists, film makers and activists from across the world.

With a provenance in psychoanalysis, the concept of melancholia has proliferated across numerous fields. Sometimes it refers to a state of mind or an affective state: elsewhere it is used to speak of racialised, gendered or queer subjectivities. At other times it becomes a tool to analyse political states or to convene constituencies of solidarity.

Melancholia also founds collective memory and associated artefactual practices and describes the conditions of professional practice organised around a public service ethic. Positioned as a condition to be claimed, transcended, or negotiated, ‘melancholic states’ speaks to the contemporary zeitgeist: the post/neo-colonial era.

This international conference will bring together voices from women’s studies, postcolonial and critical race studies, critical psychology, politics, international relations, sociology, anthropology, geography, art and design and queer studies to address our melancholic states.

Confirmed plenary speakers include:

M. Jacqui Alexander (University of Toronto)

Gaye Chan (University of Hawai’i)

Veena Das (Johns Hopkins University)

David Eng (Rutgers University)

Ayse Gul Altinay (Sabinci University, Istanbul)

Yehudit Keshet (activist and writer, Jerusalem)

Ranjana Khanna (Duke University)

Roz Mortimer (filmmaker, London)

Kavita Panjabi (Jadavpur University, Calcutta)

Nandita Sharma (University of Hawai’i)

Cindy Weber (Lancaster University)

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/events/melancholicstates/registration.htm

Registration is now underway for the Melancholic States conference – Early bird registration ends August 31st – click on link to register now and for further details http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/events/melancholicstates/registration.htm